Carnaval and another day with Pedro

Hola a todos,

This weeken

d was pretty crazy, I must say.  Carnaval i

s 

a m

ess of an extreme Mardi Gras, that's really the only w

ay I can describe it. Everyone just dresses up and goes to the street and goes crazy! I have never seen so many males dressed like females (including Drew who wore Jen's dress and makeup!)  I went dressed as something Aurora put together for me--part flapper girl, part fake eyelashes, part red lipstick, and part who knows.  The end result was actually a decent costume, and the best part is I paid nothing for it, outside of the fake eyela

shes I had to buy at Corte Ingles for 5.85 euro..

We had a great time, but at one point I realized I didnt have my phone.  I am going tomorrow to see if I can get a new one, because mine is completamente perdido (completely lost).  Another waste of money.  How do I lose everything!?

I guess its not the end of the world.

So today, I woke up and Pedro picked Aurora and me up for our Sunday outing.  This time we

 went to Jadea and Altea, two towns about an hour and a half away.  I took d

ramamine before because I knew we'd be driving all over mountains.  The landscape here, I can't even describe it to you.  

These mountains are just covered with white houses, it looks like Greece. There is this huge moutain that just comes out of the water and its like an island but its just straight rock and goes straight up.  I couldnt get a decent pic because of the guardrail, but thank goodness there was a guardrail.  On the mountain roads, we passed a Russian church that had been built there because a lot of the inhabitants are from Russia and are retired.  Russia, Germany, UK, places like that.  It sticks out like a sore thumb..all these white houses made of cement and then this huge purple and gold church!   If you want to

 retire well, retire here,  reallllly unbelievable. So pretty and so natural, and so rural.  All you have is your mountain and the sea in front of you, the sunset, the sunrise, and really nothing else. How amazing does that sound!?

We ate at an excellent restaurant on the port in Jadea, got the best seat in the house and ate great food.  Please, anyone that reads this, I'm about to talk about alcohol, so if you would rather stop reading,...

First we ordered our drinks: una caña (Mahou 5-star on draught!) for me, una for Aurora, a 50/50 martini for Pedro, and a bottle of Marina Alta for us to share. Mar

ina Alta is an amazing wine that comes straight from Alicante.  Its so fruity, it tastes like flowers and fruit.  Aurora assur

ed me that when Mom comes over here that she'll have one sip of Marina Alta and she wont be able to stop!  Because its so good, not because my mom gets drunk or anything.  I told her that she was more into dry wines.

hen to eat we had fried sardines, which we delicious except of all the bones I ate), almonds, bread with garlic alioli, a ton of tiny clams which I love, then a paella for 3.   

The paella was like ours that was made en casa only everything was bigger.  It had huge clams and huge gambas. Delicious!

Then we walked back by the beach and I saw the water hit the rocks and spray everywhere.  Gorgeous.  Then we walked too far and forgot where we parked so we got to see all these vacation houses that were just like plantations only right on the beach, just looking like the most relaxed place on Earth.  

After

 finding our parking spot, we went back towards Alicante to Altea to watch the sunset.  Although we didnt get to Altea in enough time to see it set there, I think being on the road was even better.  It was amazing!  I saw the sunset in so many different places and sigh

ts and how it came down through the mountains and the mountains just cut the sun in half, and then how it just filled this entire valley with sun.  Wow!

Then we went to this plaza where there is a realy old church, it was so neat with its blue circle top (I forget the word).  

Then we had a tea at a cafe and then we left.  Altea is amazing, the streets, I'll show you pictures.  It was once completely inhabited by the Arabs that used to rule most of Spain.  They left some of the best architecture and traditions Spain has.  On the walk back to the car we were walking on a big hill and Pedro told me that in every city where there are mountains, the hilliest street is called always Calle de Calvario (Calvary Street) like the hill Calvary in the Bible that Jesus walks up with his cross to be crucified.  Every hundred fee

t or so, they have another "station."  Every one tells the story of Jesus walking up the hill, and during Semana Santa here they have an actor that performs the exact walk that Christ was supposed to have made up the hill.  The stations each have some action that Jesus did on his way up.  The ones that really got me were stations 7 and 9, Jesus' first fall and his second fall while trying to climb the mountain with the cross on his back.  Although I'm not too religious, that to me was very interesting and also says a lot about the culture of Spain.

A couple of days ago, Aurora took me to eat churros...I will show you a picture.  They literally gave us CUPS full of liquid chocolate to dip them in.  Needless to say Xenia and I went running later.  Saturday during the day, Xenia, Lauren and I went to the beach but it got windy so we went to get coffee and then went browsing through a few stores.  A fun day nonetheless.

Bueno, pues nada, its about time for bed, Hope everyone had a good weekend and a good Mardi Gras!  Spain is going crazy because Penelope Cruz won the Oscar for best actress.  The first time a Spanish actress has won..and last year, Javier Bardem won for best actor, SPAIN is taking over the world of Hollywood!  Her dress was fantastic. Felicidades a España y Enhorabuena!